Exhibitions
SELECTIONS FROM THE COLLECTION OF JOE DIAZ
Todd Art Gallery (MTSU) / 1301 E. Main St., Murfreesboro, TN October 17, 2016 - November 10, 2016
Gaspar Enriquez, Jose Esquivel, Carlos Fresquez, Ana Laura De La Garza, John Hernandez, Benito Huerta, Luis Jiménez, Cesar Martinez, Gloria Osuna Perez, Alfred J Quiroz, Albert Ramirez, Chuck Ramirez, Jose Luis Rivera-Barrera, Alex Rubio, Shizu Saldando, John Valadez, Vincent Valdez, Kathy Vargas
Selections from the Collection of Joe Diaz
October 17 – November 10, 2016
Panel Discussion – October 17, 2:45 p.m., Todd Hall, room 204
Public Reception – October 18, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
In conjunction with National Hispanic Heritage Month this art exhibit showcases work of nationally and internationally acclaimed Latino artists from across the United States. As a collector since the mid-1980’s Joe Diaz has acquired an impressive body of contemporary art celebrating the Latino community.
A planned panel discussion is scheduled Monday, October 17. A public reception for the artists, open to the public is planned Tuesday, October 18, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Todd Hall, room 224A. Accompanying Diaz will be exhibit artists Benito Huerta, John Valadez, Vincent Valdez, and Kathy Vargas. The panel will discuss the collection and historic, geographic, and social distinctions that define each artist’s work.
Recently, as a “Why Collect” panelist for Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum’s three-part discussion entitled “Collecting Contemporary Art 101,” Diaz referred to his collection as work that amplifies his personal experience stating, “I didn’t see people like me in art. One of the reasons I started collecting was because I didn’t see Mexicans on the walls. We’re everywhere, so why aren’t we up on people’s walls?”
Benito Huerta is a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) where he also serves as Director of the Gallery at UTA. Among his accolades are a Dallas Center for Contemporary Art Legend of the Year Award in 2002 and the first Maestros Tejanos Exhibition in 2008 at the Latino Cultural Center, Dallas. His curation and public art projects include retrospectives of Mel Chin, John Hernandez, and Snake Path (Mexican Milk Snake) for the Mexican American Cultural Center, Austin, Texas.
John Valadez has worked for over 40 years in Southern California. With work that defines an iconography of Chicano experience in the city he references the changing dynamics of that experience while reconstructing a mythical allegory that speaks to unique vision. Valadez’s recent efforts include a 35 year retrospective hosted at the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla and a residency in Bordeaux, France celebrating the 5oth anniversary of the sister city art exchange between Bordeaux and Los Angeles.
Vincent Valdez is a San Antonio native focused on the practice of drawing and painting. With intensive devotion to skill and detail he is recognized for monumental portrayals of the contemporary figure that denote universal struggle within various sociopolitical arenas and eras. This has led Valdez to exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Parsons School of Design, Paris, France and the Snite Museum of Art at Notre Dame. Valdez also is a past recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters and Sculptors and the Kunstlerhaus Bethania Berlin Residency ’14.
Kathy Vargas currently serves as Associate Professor of Art at the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio. Over the years she has had solo exhibits in Rome, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Nurnberg, Germany. Group shows include "Hospice: A Photographic Inquiry" a national traveling exhibit commissioned by the Corcoran Gallery, Washington D.C.; “Transacciones, IX Bienal Internacional de Fotografia, Canary Islands; “Foto Fest Presents” at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Russia; “Regards Croises” at Galerie Prevert, Provence, France; “Aztlan Hoy” at Canal de Isabel II, Madrid, Spain; and “Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation (CARA)” UCLA, California, USA. With work also reviewed in the New York Times Vargas was also named the 2005 Texas Two-Dimensional Artist of the Year by the Texas Commission on the Arts.
Other artists with work featured in the exhibition include Gaspar Enriquez, Jose Esquivel, Carlos Fresquez, Ana Laura De La Garza, John Hernandez, Luis Jiménez, Cesar Martinez, Gloria Osuna Perez, Alfred J Quiroz, Albert Ramirez, Chuck Ramirez, Jose Luis Rivera-Barrera, Alex Rubio, and Shizu Saldamondo
This exhibit is brought to MTSU through the collaborative efforts of the Department of Art, Todd Art Gallery, the Office of the Provost, College of Liberal Arts, Distinguished Lecturer Committee, International Education and Exchange Committee, Intercultural and Diversity Office, Global Studies, La Comunidad Leadership Team, and the Patterson Foundation, Texarkana, TX.
• GALLERY HOURS: Located on the second floor of MTSU's Todd Building, the Todd Art Gallery is open 8 a.m. — 4:30 p.m. weekdays and closed on all state and university holidays. Admission is free and exhibits are open to the public. Google search “MTSU Todd Art Gallery directions”.
For more information regarding this exhibit contact Eric Snyder at 615-898-5653 or esnyder@mtsu.edu.
IMAGE: Vincent Valdez, I Lost Her To El Diablo, He Can Have Her, I Don’t Want Her Anymore, Oil on Canvas, 35 x 27"
